1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates broadly to housings for protecting regulators and gauges associated with pressurized gas supplies. More particularly, the present invention concerns a housing for supporting and protectively enclosing a regulator and one or more gauges associated with providing, controlling, and monitoring a flow of a gas from a pressurized gas supply, such as is commonly used, for example, in welding, cutting, or otherwise heating metal, wherein the housing is both modular and hingedly mounted for ease of use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often desirable to transport pressurized gas supplies, such as, for example, conventional gas cylinders, by a truck or similar vehicle for use onsite to weld, cut, or otherwise heat metal. Typically, a regulator is provided to stop, start, and otherwise control a flow of a gas from the gas supply, and one or more gauges are provided for monitoring the flow. The regulator and gauges must be mounted so as to be both conveniently accessible for use and visibly monitorable during use. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that it is highly desirable to protect the regulator and gauges from damage, particularly from damage which could affect their accuracy.
In the prior art, it is well-known to provide a housing for protectively enclosing the regulator and the gauges. Typically, the regulator and gauges mount within or behind the housing and the housing itself mounts upon a surface of the truck or other vehicle. Unfortunately, prior art housings suffers from a number of disadvantages, including, for example, that accessing the regulator or gauges for maintenance, leak testing, or other purposes is substantially inconvenient, requiring that the housing be completely dismounted. Furthermore, where two or more different gases and gas supplies are used, such as, for example, when welding or cutting metal using both oxygen gas and acetylene gas, a corresponding number of housings must be separately mounted to the vehicle, thereby undesirably requiring, for example, that twice as many mounting holes be drilled into the mounting surface. Additionally, because the regulator and gauges are mounted to the housing and the housing is mounted to the vehicle, vibrations and impacts are often undesirably transferred from the vehicle to the regulator and gauges, thereby potentially resulting in decreased accuracy or other damage.
Due to these and other problems and disadvantages in the prior art, a need exists for an improved housing for protectively enclosing the regulator and gauges.